Daily dog inspirations

I Believe this is true. My dog does wink!

Gluten Free Pumpkin + Peanut butter dog treats

Dog Cookie Recipe

Recently tried a new recipe for homemade dog treats and they are simple and the dogs love them.

Some of your dogs tried these at the Howliday Party. Credit to the recipe goes to this website. We put this in the newsletter but decided to post it here too.

They are wheat and gluten free for all of the dogs with allergies. We recommend that they are refrigerated after they are baked.

You can find rice flour at Whole Foods or it is cheaper at Winco in the Bulk section.

When I make them I triple my recipe then I have lots to use for a while.

Ingredients
2 cups White Rice Flour
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
1 cup Pumpkin Puree
2 Eggs
1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. In a large bowl mix all ingredients one at a time, kneading well after each addition.
3. Knead dough into ball and roll onto a floured surface 1/4 inch thick. Cut with the cookie cutter of your choice.
4. Place on your prepared cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. Cool and refrigerate.

Dog Park Caution

Dog Park Caution

This is our caution for you regarding dog parks.
1st we love the concept of dog parks that socialized dogs can go play. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that idea.
But we find that thats not quite the reality.
Before we consider the dogs and the social environment lets think about the dog park right now with no dogs  present.

Who cleans the water bowls? Not rinsed and refilled.... cleaned! It doesn't happen...
You don't know who has been there.
Who's pooped on the ground who might have had worms....worms live on dirt for up to 8 months.
I personally know dogs that have gotten giardia, worms and even ring worm from dog parks as well as those pesky little fleas they can bring home.
For the health concerns alone I wouldn't even take my dogs into an empty dog park.

Now throw in all the dogs that are there right now. Not all dog parks.... but many of them the owners tend to have the mentality of "They'll work it out" - TRUE but in the wild they wouldn't all survive are we all ok with that? The constantly changing dynamics of the dog park create problems. Shy dogs become aggressive because there is no structure and they just get bullied. The pushy dogs learn to be punks and learn to push others around to get their way.

I work with countless dogs with dog aggression issues because they went to dog parks and learned bad manners that got worse. I've talked to people that get a new dog and take him to the dog park and let him go to see if hes ok with other dogs. Do you want your dog in the park to be someone elses test?


I believe that the socialization portion of letting dogs socialize with other dogs is fabulous but unclean dog parks with no structure or rules is not the way to go about socialization.

Look for a trainer in your area that offers Socialization Playgroups.
We offer a playgroup with lots of structure and rules and we have different groups of playgroups for the social dogs.. dogs that need to learn to be social and a special group for the littles.
We require that dogs have taken some form of training with us so that they will understand and we have a communication system with them when we do need to step in and interrupt behavior or redirect them on to something else.

PLEASE reconsider taking your dogs to dog parks. The risks highly out weigh any possible benefits.

Waking you up because they want to be fed

I have had 2 lessons this week with owners having the troubling behavior of the dogs waking them up tooo early in the morning because the dogs want to be fed.
One of them is actually getting up at 3am to feed let the dog out and go back to bed just so the dog will let them finish sleeping.
I figure this is a perfect topic for the blog!
If you are already having this trouble with your dog i recommend crating them so that they cannot get to you to bug you to wake you up.
In general I recommend not feeding the dogs at the same time every night or morning. Mix up so they are never expecting a given time.
For example some mornings mine eat as soon as i'm awake and sometimes its a 1/2hr after that or even 1 or 2 hours after Im awake and I tend to wake up at different times depending on the day. I always take them out 1st thing to potty but I wait to feed them most mornings, I also change it up between who eats 1st and I feed the cats around the same time as the dogs. So sometimes the cats eat 1st and sometimes its the dogs but again not necessarily right after each other so they are never expecting.
Same with in the evening... Sometimes they eat before i leave for teaching classes around 5pm and sometimes its when i get home around 9pm. I just make sure they have enough time to potty before bed.
With this schedule I have never had a problem with anyone waking me up to early or pestering me to be fed.
Hope this is helpful and you can both have a good nights sleep.

Cardboard box problem solving games

I love teaching dogs how to think and figure things out on their own.
It can be great confidence building as well as great mental stimulation.
One of my favorites that is very simple is teaching them words associated with a box.
I start with teaching a marker word. "YES" is what I use.
Some like to use a clicker instead of a word.. I just find that clicker, treats, and leash is too much for me and i don't always have a clicker with me.
I start with saying "Yes" and feed the dog a treat immediately after.
DO NOT say the word and FEED at the same time. Must be after the word is said.
I get out a cardboard box and start really simple... I encourage the dog to go check it out.
The dog touches it or sniffs it at all and i say "Yes" and treat them.
I do this.. maybe 5-8 times in a row so now the dog is completely engaged with this box means good things.
Then I will have the box flipped over and encourage the dog to touch it with his/her paw.
I lure the dog with the food toward the box and upward. Initially the dog will accidently touch the box and you will say "Yes" and treat. Do this multiple times once the dog starts associating that his paw touching the box gets the treat you can start adding a word to it. "Paw"/"Touch" etc...
I would give the dog a break at this time and continue more in a bit or later on.
Other things I do with the box... depending on the size of the box
after each thing I have put suggestions for what you can call it... just suggestions you can call it anything you would like.
In between each of these give your dog a short break..
DON't try to do all of this in one day.
Each one of these is a lot of thinking. Please keep your training sessions short no more than 5 minutes.
MOST of all HAVE FUN!

• Put Front 2 Paws on box "Front Paws"
• Put Back 2 Paws on box "Back Paws
• Put all 4 Paws up on box "Climb"
• Touch it with his nose "Nose"
• move the box with his nose "Nudge" 
• Put their mouth on the box "Get it"/"Munch" / "snack" / "hold"
• Picking up the box with "mouth" and moving it
• flip the box over "Flip it"
• Have the box open upward get the front 2 Paws in the box "Front Paws in"
• Have the box open upward get the back 2 paws in the box "Back Paws In"
• All 4 paws in the box "Get in" 

I think that's enough to get you started! 

If you want help learning how to teach these I'd be happy to come to your home and work on this with you and your dog in a private lesson. 

Head Halters

Head halters can be a very useful tool for some types of dog training.

Just like harnesses Head halters tend to be a management tool not necessarily a training tool.

When you take the head halter off your dog will not walk as well as when it was on.

But it can be great for people that don't want anything other than to be able to walk their dogs.

If not used properly it can rub and hurt the bridge of the dogs nose.

It can also be a great tool for having control of the mouth. When working with a dog that can be dog reactive   it can be great for doing close dog on dog training and still having control of the mouth if you need it. 

Or dogs that can be people aggressive you still can have control of the mouth when needed. 

The head halters are not a muzzle. They don't do anything to restrict the mouth unless you are pulling up on it. 

When using a head halter we recommend the HALTI collar.

We like the fact that the Halti has a safety strap going from the connection for the leash to the collar.

This halti is not properly fitted on this fake dog head. The neck strap behind the head should be right up directly behind the ears.

There are other variations and types of head halters.
Another one is the Gentle leader. If you use the gentle leader make sure to make your own safety strap because they don't come with one.  They can also be a lot harder to fit properly without the help of a trainer.

Harnesses

A harness is a restraint and for most dogs just tends to teach them to pull.

We don't recommend a harness for teaching loose leash walking.

If you think about it.. police dogs have harnesses, sled dogs have harnesses, mountain dogs that pull carts have harnesses. Harnesses teach dogs to pull. 

So in some instances we use this to our advantage.

Puppies under 16weeks we recommend the use of a harness so that it is just management and they are not learning to pull on their collar. Until they are ready to start basic obedience training.

If a dog already has an existing neck injury and for some small dogs we may use a harness but it is not necessary to use a harness with all small dogs.

We use harnesses to help teach a restrained recall. Some dogs just lope their way on over to their owners when called. To make coming to you sooo much more exciting we teach a restrained recall. 

In the following video the handler is just holding onto the dog but it can be much easier with a harness and just restraining the dog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yMw3RdrFxQ

There are many different types of harnesses available.

Standard harness that we recommend for use just as management and to restrain should look like this one...

 There are other types of harnesses like this easy walk harness to the left.
For a dog with a soft personality this can work as management for some dogs that can help limit the strain on you when pulling. It does not stop pulling and you will not be able to take it off and the dog still walk nicely.

There are many other harnesses available that are supposed to stop pulling as well. Again all of these are management tools that can help with pulling on a soft personality dog. But will not stop pulling altogether.